I pulled into the gas service bay and noticed a man perhaps in his 40’s pumping gas in the car in front of me. My attention was drawn to these words on his car tag, “Disabled Veteran.” This prompted a “Thank you for your service, sir.” We entered into a brief discussion about his deployment to Iraq and I mentioned the three deployments my son and our family have gone through. He thanked me for my comments and my parting words to him were ” God bless you, sir.”
I say those words quite often and sincerely mean what I say, this encounter was no exception. When I say “God bless you” I want God to reward or do something special for the person to whom I say it. It’s like a petition or prayer to God for that person. I want them to enjoy all the benefits God has to offer them.
I believe God wants to bless everyone and there is a sense in which He does. The Scriptures tell us that God sends rain “on the just and the unjust.” However, I also believe that we can choose to receive or forfeit the blessings God intends for us.
Is our country ignoring God? Are we forfeiting blessings we have known in the past?
“What’s happening to our country?” is a question that often surfaces with older adults. Folks in my age bracket tend to have a perspective about life that isn’t present in younger people busy with careers, raising children, and surviving the rat race of life. Many I associate with are very concerned about lawlessness, moral corruption in places of authority, lack of vision in many of our leaders, and the general decline in civility in our nation.
What is happening to our nation? I believe there is a root cause to all that is happening to us. So, at the risk of oversimplifying why we are declining as a once great nation, I will venture my understanding of the problem. We have fallen out of favor with God. God still loves and cares about America but we have abandoned Him in many ways. This nation was founded by patriots who believed in a sovereign God who blessed righteous living and judged sin. They believed God would bless us if we lived according to his Laws. Here’s what the Preamble of our Constitution says about God’s blessings.
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the Blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.”
Most, if not all, of our Founders, believed that the survival of the republic they established depended on the moral character of its leaders and citizenry. God blesses faithfulness to His teachings; people and nations that disregard this fundamental truth do so to their ruin.
God has not abandoned us. We, in many ways, have abandoned Him. How have we left God behind? We are harvesting the sin and corruption sown in our government for at least a hundred years. We have taken God and faith out of our schools and our political institutions. What was once a nation that appreciated good character in our leaders tends to re-elect those who pay them off with promises of benefits for their vote. We are becoming increasingly ignorant of the great sacrifices made by those who have fought and died for our freedoms. We have become arrogant and believe bankruptcy does not apply to our government as it does to those individuals and families who do not live within their means. We are losing all vestiges of common sense and basic decency.
How many millions of innocent lives have been taken since the enactment of Roe v.Wade in 1973? God says, “You shall not murder.” Is abortion a form of murder? Think about this syllogism.
- To deliberately kill an innocent person is morally wrong.
- Abortion deliberately kills an innocent person.
- Therefore, abortion is morally wrong.
God’s blessings have been on our nation because many leaders and citizens have been God-fearing. We have not been perfect but there was a core conviction that God and His laws were foundational to the health and prosperity of our nation. Are we on the precipice of disaster? Are we still a people that reverence God? Have we outgrown our need for God? Is He still our god? Has someone or something replaced Him?
Psalm 144: 15 is very clear about the situation of nations that revere and worship the Lord. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”
If a nation is blessed because its leaders and people choose God as their Lord, what happens to those who choose not to serve the Lord? Are we beginning to see the answer to this question in our time? Are we reaping the harvest of what we have been sowing for many years? If you believe God judges the sins of individuals and nations, there is only one answer you can give.
James Russell Lowell once said, “Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide.”
It is time for us to decide. Pray daily for our country. Pray that God will give us wise and courageous leaders who will make the tough decisions that will set us on the right course. Vote your faith convictions and live out your faith in everything you do. Worship no man, no political party. Put God on the throne of your life and depend on Him to supply what you need. It is high time that God’s people get serious about what’s happening in our country and petition God for the deliverance we need.
“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will forgive their sins and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14